Questions to be answered at Wimbledon

Trevor Watson

We’re all hugging ourselves with excitement at the prospect of the big fortnight for tennis, good old Wimbledon.

So many questions. Will Andy Murray again win the title and get a knighthood? How many times will we see TV close-ups of his wife, or mother, or both? Will Serena Williams swear?

There’s also the cliffhanger of whether a British player other than Andy will reach the second round. Mind you, a pay-out of £29,000 for losing in the first isn’t bad.

Let’s hope the weather helps, there’s nothing more depressing than seeing people under umbrellas and hearing experts droning on about what could happen.

The weather intervened in the cricket at Durham but luckily the Duckworth-Lewis method offered an exciting one-day climax as England edged out the Kiwis.

Jonny Bairstow was England’s hero with 83 not out, sharing a winning stand of 54 with Yorkshire team mate Adil Rashid.

It brought memories of Jonny’s late father, David, sharing a stand of 35 with fellow Yorkshireman Graham Stevenson at Sydney in 1980 as England beat Australia in a one-dayer.

The late, great Richie Benaud later remarked: ‘When I saw two Yorkshiremen come together I knew England would win.’ That was some tribute.

That lively Dewsbury enthusiast and historian, Gerald Egan, who to his credit has returned to live in the town, sent me a cutting of another cricket game affected by water.

It was June 1899 and Yorkshire played Derbyshire at Savile Town when it had happier connotations and the attendance on the first day was 7,000.

After day two, Yorkshire needed only 32 to win in their second innings. However, a member of the catering staff left a tap running overnight above the visiting dressing room and water poured through onto the playing gear of the Derbyshire side. The room was also awash.

It was decided that Derbyshire would field wearing their ordinary clothes, apart from two amateurs, who had a different dressing room. Because they also had boots they bowled and Yorkshire won by nine wickets.

It was reported that a stranger wondered into the ground, asked who was playing and which side was which. He was told: ‘Yorkshire are in white.’

Sports still needs that sort of humour.

The whites of the Derbyshire players were hung all round the ground on various clothes lines and posts and they stayed until they were dry.

Gerald said he asked the wonderful Dewsbury loyalist Maurice Pollard if that would have happened in his day.

He replied: ‘Certainly not, we always checked. I once found a ten bob note in the visiting dressing room - it went into the cricket bat fund.’ Maurice too is badly missed.

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